Naperville Deli

Thanks to the person who suggested it :-) We enjoyed it so much that we ate there twice during a week-end trip. We had lunch there on Saturday -- huge pastrami sandwiches for my husband and myself, and our daughter-in-law got the salami, which she said was very good. Loved the pastrami! We went back for breakfast the next day. My husband and I had plain bagels, toasted with cream cheese, and our son had the Schmalz special -- a sandwich with egg, pastrami, and swiss cheese melted on it. He said it was "great!" I felt like I was in New York, with photos of Zabar's, cheesecake from both Junior's & Carnegie Deli, and the bagels are from H&H in New York. They're flash frozen and baked in Naperville, and they are yummy! We left with a dozen for us and another dozen for the kids. Also, the owner that we spoke to was very warm and friendly. We'll definitely go back, especially since it's only 4 blocks from the hotel we always stay in :-)

Thanks for the info. I remember seeing the original post in which Flip, I believe, recommended this place. I still haven't made it there, but your post reminded me that I definitely need to give it a try.

I moved to Naperville from New Jersey about four years ago and finally hit this place on this past St. Patty's Day and enjoyed the hell out of Schmaltz' mammouth and exquisite corned beef sandwiches.

(One note: When I tried ordering a ham-and-cheese on rye for my 4-year-old twins I was told quite tersely, "Sir, this is a New York-style Jewish deli. No pork products are sold here," as if I were some hayseed who didn't know that all delis in the New York area are run this way. Well, they're not. Jewish-style delicatessens are the fringe, not the norm, even in New York and New Jersey. Just an FYI.)

A few weeks later, after reading Sandy's post above and how the bagles are imported from NY and then finished off in Naperville, I decided to resume a tradition that had died once we moved out here: Sunday Morning Bagles!

So I drove over to Naper Blvd, cheerfully bought a half dozen, picked up one of Schmaltz' small containers of whipped cream cheese, and raced home. There, I poured some coffee, opened up the Tribune, spread some shmear and took a huge bite out of a poppy-seed beauty of a bagle.

Something wasn't right. The cream cheese tasted strange. Like ricotta cheese was mixed in or something. And it was grainy. It became impossible to enjoy the bagle. I threw it out and spread butter on another one. And this one tasted just like back East! Y'know ... if I were eating a bagle with butter on it ... instead of cream cheese ..

Several days later I told my dad about this -- he's a retired chef now living in Florida -- and he chuckled. "Son, that cream cheese should have been taken off the shelf and thrown out weeks earlier. That grainy texture means it was old. Spoiled."